Top Senate Democrat ‘optimistic’ party can oust Ted Cruz

Democrats are facing an uphill battle to retain the upper chamber of Congress, but the chief of the party’s Senate campaign arm says the red bastions of Texas and Florida are theirs for the taking.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) said it’s “very possible” his party can capture 52 seats in the Senate.

That would require holding Democratic seats in predominantly red states such as Montana and West Virginia, along with maintaining seats in purple states and flipping seats in Texas and Florida. Texas, with longtime incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), looks to be particularly challenging.

Texas has been red for years, though speculation has grown that it may be more of a purple state. Cruz is facing Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) in his bid to be elected for the third straight time to his Senate office.

While there’s reason to believe it may be a close race, polling has been decisive for Cruz. Very few polls show the race tied, and no prominent ones show Allred leading. RealClearPolling has Cruz leading by about 8 percentage points on average.

Peters thinks Vice President Kamala Harris can energize voters enough to help the Texas race along with others across the country.

“With Vice President Harris now at the top of the ticket, it’s just been remarkable to see the outpouring of support for her,” Peters said.

“It’s certainly been great,” he said. “The amount of energy that is on the ground is something I haven’t seen for a long, long time. And that’s going to bode very well for all of our Senate races across the country. Having the energy on the ground with the Harris campaign just gives momentum to each of the candidates to make sure that they win in the end.”

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke has significant recent experience as a Democrat in statewide races. He came within about 2.6 points from upsetting Cruz in the 2018 Senate race and then followed that up with a double-digit loss to Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) in the 2022 gubernatorial race.

O’Rourke’s 2018 race looked to be one of the best chances the party had to flip the state, but the Democrats missed their opportunity. Given the polling between Allred and Cruz, it doesn’t look to be a better opportunity than 2018.

Nevertheless, Peters is “very optimistic” for the Texas and Florida Senate races and thinks the “numbers are strong” in those states. “We’re expecting big turnout to help our Democratic candidates.”

Better opportunities for Democrats may lie in Arizona and Michigan, where Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) have had much better polling than in Texas or Florida. But those seats may not be enough for Democrats to keep the Senate, which will likely become a Republican chamber come January.